Why we Have Fallen Apart - A Memoir

"Our own men and our sons have joined the ranks of the stranger. They have joined his religion and they help to uphold his government.” What is the worst part about our clan falling apart is the fact that we can contribute the fault to the flaws of our culture. What we believed is a culture that held us together and made us stronger did exactly the opposite. Because we have all grown up believing that there can be no other explanation in the world besides what the oracle and the egwugwu say, our perception of the world was skewed. Why should my wife throw away the twins in the evil forest minutes after they are born? Why should Okwonkwo have to face a 7 year exile for a mere mistake? Why should Ikemefuna have been killed? The clan has never sat down and thought what harm keeping twins or keeping Okwonwko or Ikemefuna would do. Not having titles makes men worthless. Not being strong or wealthy automatically meant you were a disgrace to the culture. We drove too many people out of our culture and then we called ourselves a strong clan. We forgot the people who belonged to our clan, and they have turned against us. It would be pointless to fight the white men with our people because all of our own people are not fighting for the opposite side. Nothing has made us fall apart except having our own men turn against us. Our own men have turned against us because we made decisions to shut out every way of living that does not follow the “Ibo way”. We thought that strength prestige comes from power and titles. What the white men have showed us is that strength comes from education and peace. It has pained me to see our clan fall apart. “The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart."